Sunday was another glorious day - calm, dry and warm for this time of year. Better than yesterday, in fact, though a very difficult day for photos due to overcast skies. I got up a little late, and got to Crosby Farm Regional Park about an hour after dawn, and pooped out about an hour before sunset.

At Crosby Farm I travelled the main loop trails between the park's pools and the Mississippi River. I did 3 travelling bird counts. It was fairly quiet most of the way, with isolated pockets of bird activity. That made it obvious how the little pockets of downy woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch and chickadee were groups instead of random associations. Same for American tree sparrow, dark-eyed junco and American goldfinch. South of the small pool was the most active, but along the riverbank there were groups of American tree sparrow with the above-mentioned associates foraging in the weed grass tangles.

I got a bit pooped counting birds at Crosby. Travelling counts here on the mainland are difficult, and I could never handle it during migration seasons here. After a snack I went over to the relatively nearby Old Cedar Avenue part of Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. I walked the bluff trail West of the parking lot for about 1.3km, doing another travelling bird count. I was overwhelmed by the number of birds in the area near the parking lot, which is very popular with the robins, but after moving through that area it was mostly quiet. All the usual species in the trees, grasses and on the water. I was stumped by one set of finchy/sparrowy birds that first hid in the grass and then taunted me by going into the tops of tall trees where I couldn't pick out any ID features because they were just black specks against the sky. One special sighting was a barred owl sleeping on a low branch directly over the trail. Over a dozen people with bikes, dogs, etc went through the trail just while I was there, and this little owl was snoozing through all of it! I tried to get a photo without disturbing him, but the light was so awful that at ISO 800 what color the little owl has is washed out. Unfortunately I can't work on or post photos while on the road.

Unfortunately I just noticed today that my telephoto lens has really bad fungus now. There wasn't a hint of fungus last I looked earlier in the year, so I just have sucked in some air while it was cold and forgotten to work out the condensation later. As if I didn't already have enough financial uncertainty to work on right now.

Travelling bird counts:

Crosby 1:
0812-0855, 500m
19+ BCCH, 6 WBNU, 1 AMCR, 1 PIWO, 1 RBWO, 1 NOCA, 8 CANG, 12 MALL, 3 HAWO, 3 DOWO, 6 AMGO

Crosby 2:
0905-1100, 2km
14+ BCCH, 3+ AMGO, 1 RBWO, 3 WBNU, 1 BLJA, 3+ DEJU, 3 DOWO, 4 NOCA, 2 MALL, 34+ ATSP

Crosby 3:
1100-1150, 1km
14+ BCCH, 2 HAWO, 1 DOWO, 4 WBNU, 1 BLJA, 2 AMCR, 1 AMGO, 4 RBWO, 1 BRCR

Cedar Ave:
1238-1415, 1.3km
18+ BCCH, 20+ AMRO, 43+ MALL, 33+ CANG, 8 AMGO, 2 NOCA, 9+ ATSP, 5 HAWO, 10 DOWO, 1 CEDW, 4 WBNU, 1 RBWO, 2 BRCR, 5 NOPI, 5 AMCO 2 UNLG, 4 WODU, 1 BADO, 1? WTSP